Featured Member – Claire Manhart

I was born, raised, and formally educated in Omaha, Nebraska. After teaching 6th graders for one year, I came out to Los Angeles to babysit my sister’s kids while she was in the hospital having her third child. A friend had told me that since I was in California, I should visit beautiful San Francisco before returning to Omaha. As luck would have it, my brother was in San Francisco after getting out of the Marine Corps. I called him up; he met me at the airport, took me out to dinner, and took me on several cable car rides. As luck would have it again, it was a gorgeous, sunny, warm, fog-free day. And the marine air. Ah, the marine air! I was in love. Decided on the spot to stay in San Francisco. Called Mom to send out my stuff, and my real education began in SF in the 60s.

Now, I didn’t run down to the Haight to join a hippie commune, but I was definitely changed by the openness and acceptance of many around me and the music and the concerts in Golden Gate Park and Avalon Ballroom. But all was not love and brotherhood. There was the divisive Vietnam War. As a Department of Army Civilian working in the high school completion program at the Army Education Center at the Presidio, I saw many soldiers change their lives as a result of advancing their education. I also saw many being spat on if they left the Presidio wearing their uniforms. After serving in Vietnam, many returned to the US in a body bag. I worked for the government for 27 years, 3 years in Germany and 1 year in Korea. I was offered an early retirement and became a tour guide-leading many cruise trips: to Alaska, up and down both coasts, through the Panama Canal and train trips across Canada. Always I was happy to return to San Francisco until I realized most of my close friends had moved out of the area, and my closest family members were in Fresno and Folsom. I was in need of finding a community, so I came up to Grass Valley to checkout Wolf Creek Lodge. I was impressed with the friendly spirit of its members, so I moved from my beloved San Francisco to Grass Valley, which is fast becoming my new beloved city!